Witness in Mangano case gave cash to 2 Grid managers, records say

A key witness in former Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano’s bribery and obstruction conviction separately admitted paying $50,000 in cash to former National Grid managers who have since pleaded guilty to federal charges tied to a kickback scheme, court documents show.

The payments, detailed in handwritten FBI notes, proffer-session transcripts and papers filed in the Mangano case, reveal a connection to the National Grid kickback case that names one of the cooperating witnesses and his contractor companies for the first time. Newsday first reported on ties to the witness' involvement in the National Grid case in January after a federal judge rejected Mangano's request for a new trial.

National Grid, a London-based company that operates the natural gas network on Long Island, recently filed a motion seeking more than $4.5 million restitution from the five former employees who pleaded guilty to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, home renovations, RVs and college tuition payments in exchange for lucrative service contracts. National Grid operated the Long Island electric grid starting in 2007 until PSEG Long Island took over in 2014.

In court papers filed as part of Mangano’s request for a new trial, U.S. District Court Judge Joan Azrack rejected Mangano’s claim that disclosures of $50,000 in cash payments to the National Grid managers by Anthony Gulino, previously a fence and snowplowing contractor for National Grid who also had county contracts, could have influenced the outcome of Mangano’s two trials. Gulino, according to court papers, had been continuing to make payments to two former National Grid officials while cooperating in the Mangano case and "even made one such payment after the first Mangano trial."

A lawyer for Gulino, Sean Haran, declined to comment.

Gulino’s companies, Laser Industries and Residential Fences, had contracts with National Grid and its predecessor companies dating back to the Long Island Lighting Co., according to the filings.

When first asked about his ties to two former National Grid employees during an October 2020 interview with the FBI, Gulino said he didn’t recall having paid cash to former National Grid manager Patrick McCrann, according to an FBI transcript filed in court. But in a session a month later, Gulino acknowledged making cash payments to McCrann and another National Grid manager, Richard Zavada, because Laser Industries was "losing ground" to other contractors.

Payments to Zavada of $5,000 or $10,000 were made at a shopping center near National Grid’s Hicksville headquarters, possibly as early as 2015, the FBI notes indicate, as well as at gas stations along the Long Island Expressway in Muttontown. He also made "one or two" payments of "approximately $5,000" in cash to McCrann at a Brentwood location, the FBI notes state. In all, according to an accounting of the payments, Gulino paid $50,000 to the two men.

Andrew Karpf, an attorney for McCrann, said, "Anthony Gulino offered that he paid Patrick McCrann $5,000.00 on one occasion, then offered that it might have been one or two payments. Clearly he has no recollection that tens of thousands were paid."

Edward Palermo, an attorney for Zavada, said his client "has pleaded guilty and fully accepted responsibility for his actions. Most of the money he improperly received has already been forfeited to the government, and the remainder will also be returned by sentencing in the case, which will occur in May." He declined to comment further.

Prosecutors in court filings arguing against a new trial for Mangano said they had been "unaware" of Gulino’s activities in the National Grid case until "well after" Mangano’s second trial. John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, declined to comment.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.